North Carolina shooting: 15-year-old boy arrested after five people died in ‘maddening and tragic act of gun violence’ | American News

A 15-year-old boy suspected of killing five people in North Carolina has been arrested and is in critical condition in hospital, US police said.

The boy, who has not been named, allegedly shot dead two people in the state capital, Raleigh, before opening fire on a walking path, killing three others and injuring two others.

Among those killed in Thursday night’s attack were a 16-year-old boy named James Roger Thompson and a 29-year-old off-duty police officer named Gabriel Torres.

The other victims killed in the shooting were Nicole Connors, 52, Mary Marshall, 34, and Susan Karnatz, 49.

Marcille Lynn Gardner, 59, was injured in the attack and remains in critical condition in hospital, while a second officer, Casey Joseph Clark, was also injured but has been released.

Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said those killed were from a racially diverse group and authorities have yet to determine the motive for the shooting.

The incident sparked a massive police response across the city, with officers searching for the suspect for several hours before cornering him inside a house and arresting him.

Officers from multiple police departments swarmed the neighborhood of Hedingham, a residential neighborhood northeast of downtown Raleigh, closing roads and warning residents to stay indoors while they searched for the shooter.

“No one should feel this fear”

Governor Roy Cooper called the attack a “maddening and tragic act of gun violence”.

“Today we are sad, we are angry and we want to know the answers to all the questions,” he said.

“I think we all know the basic truth – no neighbor, no parent, no child, no grandparent, no one should feel that fear in these communities – no one.”

In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and First Lady Jill Biden were grieving with the families of the victims and that his administration was working with Mr. Cooper to help local authorities with their investigation.

“Enough. We have cried and prayed with too many families who have had to bear the terrible burden of these mass shootings,” he said.

The Raleigh incident is just the latest in a violent week across America, with five more people killed in a shooting in South Carolina on Sunday.

Two police officers were fatally shot in Connecticut on Wednesday night after they were apparently lured into an ambush by an emergency call about possible domestic abuse.

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Police officers were shot this week in Greenville, Mississippi; Decatur, Ill.; Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Central Florida.

Two of those officers, one in Greenville and one in Las Vegas, were killed.

Thursday’s violence was the 25th massacre in 2022 in which victims were shot and killed, according to Northeastern University’s Mass Murder Database.

A mass murder is defined as when four or more people are killed, excluding the perpetrator.